Various types of tests related to patient diagnosis and therapy can be performed by analysis assays of a sample of a patient's infections, bodily fluids or abscesses. Such patient samples are typically placed in sample vials, extracted from the vials, combined with various reagents in special reaction cuvettes or tubes, incubated, and analyzed to aid in treatment of the patient. In typical clinical chemical analyses, one or two assay reagents are added at separate times to a liquid sample having a known concentration, the sample-reagent combination is mixed and incubated. Interrogating measurements, turbidimetric or fluorometric or absorption readings or the like are made to ascertain end-point or rate values from which an amount of analyte may be determined using well-known calibration techniques.
Although various known clinical analyzers for chemical, immunochemical and biological testing of samples are available, analytical clinical technology is challenged by increasing needs for improved levels of analysis. Due to increasing pressures on clinical laboratories to reduce cost-per-reportable result, there continues to be a need for improvements in the overall cost performance of automated clinical analyzers. In particular, sample analysis continuously needs to be more cost effective in terms of reducing consumables or increasing analyzer throughput for each and every reaction assay.
One contributor to reducing cost-per-reportable result is the ability to perform a large number of reaction assays in reaction cuvettes without requiring frequent operator intervention. It is therefore important that a large inventory of reaction cuvettes be maintained on automatic analyzers in such a manner that cuvettes may be automatically provided for performing reaction assays therein. In particular, the present invention provides a cuvette magazine having features to inventory cuvettes securely therein regardless of whether the magazine is positioned on the analyzer or removed therefrom.